Part 7: Episode 12 - 13 coverage
Welcome back, today we continue my complete inability to title and open my updates!
These are the other buried treasures.
There's also these pyramid bugs.
They've got some terribly flimsy defenses and/or a couple crippling elemental weaknesses.
Now let's fight Kefka. Before I got to him, Viral died and I didn't bother reviving him since every Tardegrade party would immediately obliterate him with a bath. When opening the gate the party gets a full heal (in case Terra dragged 3 corpses to the gate). In the video we mentioned that any attack will end the fight.
For some reason Hiiro's "Bio Blaster" uses the super ball effect. Since it's an attack item, semi-difficult to obtain I never use it, I don't think it can be friendly fired. Character-Sprite Kefka is technically a party member when he appears, so I think the attack calls up the super ball, sees no targets in the enemy ranks, and fails to launch.
In hindsight, I kinda wished I brought Hato to see how Crusader works.
Strong enough.
Done with enough time to spare to force these jerks to push me away from the delicious Green
So I got all the prizes even though I only cared about the armory, now for the main event.
First, the careful consideration of if I want to slow or berserk something. I should just stop bothering screencapping my first volley against these kind of fights, it'll always be slow or berserk. I know the shell is even nastier than whelk with the counter attacks, so try to berserk it to try and avoid that fate.
Shit, he's got the Speck's auto-runic effect.
And he doesn't like being hit by magic.
REALLY hates it. That's 2 consecutive counter attacks and Gendo is going to die.
One saving grace, the Megavolt and Gigavolt attacks count as spells when it comes to runic.
And that's a regular attack. The Presenter is fast, hates Lores as much as everything else, so at the bare minimum to survive need to
grind a couple levels to get at least 1001 HP each.
Gendo, in addition to being a bad negligent dad and master criminal against nature, is a drunk.
Right outside of Vector these guys show up in the forest. I think we saw them before, and liquidy maybe even controlled this attack out of them, but we never saw... this. An attack can inflict "Morph"! But it reverts really fast so you can't plan or rely on it.
These guys show up in the desert tileset, they're pretty hard to damage, but GrandTrain rips through them.
Honestly, this is the only prize worth caring about back at the imperial camp. There's a Hawkeye (for when I have to use Zeppli), a Rename Card, and some other trivial stuff.
These guys are my best friends.
They'll save me some time in my grind.
I decide to talk with Leo to get a free heal, and grab this while I'm at it.
Finally, we're ready. I have about 35 potions. Not by intent, but just remember it for later. Both Chichi and Gendo are wearing Earrings and Running Shoes (the former could have been changed out on Gendo at least, but oh well)
Even though Blow Fish won't care, his physical attack and maybe Ex Punch will be nerfed by Safe.
No, no it isn't. He hates the idea of just seeing a lore, not just being hit by it. So this bastard double countered a buff.
Plan B, maybe he doesn't hate robots.
Jerk absorbs Pearl.
So switching to my (distant) second strongest weapon. Chichi is going to be on heal duty, but I want her to be able to contribute when possible. Note that I'm at 0% Physical Evade.
Evade is still bugged. Maybe blind isn't bugged anymore, but evade is still a huge exploit. He didn't counter Golem, so anything that gets past Blink and M-Evade is going to talk to the hand.
I'm relying on Gendo. Relying on Gendo. Since Dice ignore defense, it could possibly kill the shell faster than the head (the shell's drops are 2 thief knives, so pass).
Blow Fish can't kill me.
Sun Bath isn't enough to undo the damage, so whoever gets a turn tosses a potion. Hasted, we're around the same speed as the boss, so its a stable loop. Usually he'll act 3 times while in the shell, if I'm lucky I see Giga Volts runic'd right back on him. If I'm unlucky I eat 3 fugu dinners.
But its over, the head only has about 15000 HP, the body under 9000. I used at least 20 potions to survive.
He could have dropped a pearl lance. I could have savescummed for it, but then I'd be exerting effort for Legato. I reset to back when I was I think level 23. I want my rag-a-muffin Shanon to be as fast as possible.
But wait! I forgot I wanted to do some more plans with him, so I get back up to fighting shape, slap a black belt and Kirin on Gendo to see if I can streamline a bit, and head back up.
First, Kirin and Golem. Sadly everyone's stamina is too lousy to have it replace potions, so it was a wasted turn.
Also without the earring, Gendo gets smacked hard by an El Nino. The Presenter only hit him twice with a physical attack this time, and neither one sparked a counter. Eventually I get everyone fully healed and Gendo's turn rolls around just as the head withdraws, time for Science!
Since Gendo used Runic, it apparently un-hid the passive Runic the shell was using. Didn't expect that actually. My thought was that one or the other would take priority (my money was on the shell, since I thought the speck took it.) Again, a couple turns roll around where everything lines up.
Tried to steal his perma-runic status. It didn't work. Which, honestly is for the best. I have no wish to have her eat R-Nuke Ultimas.
I don't think this was a counter to the Rippler effect, since there seemed to be a bit of a beat between them. Either way, it was the only strike, not the one-two punch when the head is out.